Semantics, Pragmatics & Philosophy (SPP) Group Meetings 2025-2026
Lent 2026
Friday, 20th February 2026
Paper to be discussed: Panfili, Laura, Steve Duman, Andrew Nave, Katherine Phelps Ridgeway, Nathan Eversole, and Ruhi Sarikaya. 2021. “Human-AI Interactions through a Gricean Lens”. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America 6 (1): 288–302. https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v6i1.4971.
Guest speakers: Steve Duman and Laura Panfili
Friday, 6th March 2026
Paper to be discussed: TBC
Guest speaker: Una Stojnić (Professor of philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, at Princeton University). Una mainly works on understanding and modelling language and linguistic communication. This situates her work within a network of traditional questions in philosophy of language, as well as within a set of empirical questions in linguistics and cognitive sciences.
Friday, 13th March 2026
Paper to be discussed: TBC
Guest speaker: Daniel Altshuler (Professor of Semantics and Pragmatics in the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics at the University of Oxford). Daniel’s primary research interests are in the areas of semantics and pragmatics. The theme of his research is context dependence with the aim of better understanding how compositional semantics interacts with discourse structure and discourse coherence.
Michaelmas 2025
Friday, 17th October 2025 (14:00-15:00 UK time)
Talk: Parikh, Prashant. 2019. Communication and content. Berlin: Language Science Press
Guest speaker: Prashant Parikh (Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University)
Friday, 14th November 2025 (14:00-15:00 UK time)
Talk: Borg, Emma. 2024. What is it to be responsible for what you say? Royal Institude pf Philosophy Supplement 95. 107-126.
Guest speakers: Emma Borg (Professor of philosophy of language at University of London)
Easter 2024
Friday, 9th May 2025 (14:00-15:00 UK time)
Talk: Kalomoiros, A. & Schwarz, F. Presupposition Projection From 'and' vs. 'or': Experimental Data and Theoretical Implications. Journal of Semantics 41 (3-4).
Guest speaker: Alexandros Kalomoiros (Institute for Linguistics, Heinrich Heine Unversitat, Dusseldorf)
Friday, 6th June 2025 (14:00-15:00 UK time)
Talk: Mehu, M. & Sweeting, S. Automatic behaviour analysis reveals links between facial expression and speech acts' illocutionary point, strength, and valence. Journal of Pragmatics 241. 41-60.
Guest speakers: Marc Mehu (Department of Psychology, Webster Vienna Private University, Vienna)
Lent 2024
Friday, 31st January 2025 (14:00-15:00 UK time)
Talk: Moeschler, J. (2023). What makes inferences reliable? The unpredictable relationship between pragmatic inference and truth. Journal of Pragmatics 218, 153-164.
Guest speaker: Jacques Moeschler (University of Geneva)
Friday, 14th February 2025 (14:00-15:00 UK time)
Talk: Miller, J. (2024). The metaphysics of puns. Synthese 203, 1-18.
Guest speaker: James Miller (Durham University)
Friday, 28th February 2025 (14:00-15:00 UK time)
Talk: Zhai, M., Feng, C., Qu, Q., and Fischer-Baum, S. (2025). The primacy of taxonomic semantic organization over thematic semantic organization during picture naming. Cognition 254, 1-14.
Guest speaker: Mingjun Zhai (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
Friday, 21st March 2025 (14:00-15:00 UK time)
Talk: van Poppel, L. & Pilgram, R. (2024). Exploiting metaphor in disagreement. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 12, 111-138.
Guest speakers: Lotte van Poppel (University of Groningen), Roosmaryn Pilgrim (Leiden University)
Michaelmas 2024
Friday, 18th October 2024 (14:00-16:00 UK time)
Talk: Peet, A. (2024). The puzzle of plausible deniability. Synthese 203 (5), 1-20.
Guest speaker: Andrew Peet (Umea University, Sweden)
Friday, 1st November 2024 (14:00-16:00 UK time)
Talk: Erk, K. & Herbelot, A. (2023). How to marry a star: probabilistic constraints for meaning in context. Journal of Semantics 40 (4), 549-583.
Guest speakers: Katrin Erk (University of Texas at Austin) and Aurelie Herbelot (University of Trento)
Friday, 15th November 2024 (14:00-16:00 UK time)
Talk: Weissman, B (2024). Can an emoji be a lie? The links between emoji meaning, commitment, and lying. Journal of Pragmatics 219, 12-29
Guest speaker: Ben Weissman (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
Friday, 29th November 29th (14:00-16:00 UK time)
Talk: Rahman, A., & Liu, Z. (2023). The cognitive psychological distinction between levels of meaning. Language Sciences 100, 1- 21.
Guest speakers: TBC
Easter 2024
Friday, May 17th, 2024 (14:00-16:00 UK time)
Talk. Rapport in interpreter-mediated police interviews with victims. A discourse-pragmatic analysis.
Guest speakers: Dr Maria Gomez Bedoya (University of East Anglia).
Friday, May 31st, 2024 (14:00-16:00 UK time)
Talk. Metasemantics, metapragmatics, and philosophical foundations of meaning: The case of humanism.
Guest speaker: Professor Kasia M. Jaszczolt (University of Cambridge).
Lent 2024
Friday, January 26th, 2024 (14:00-16:00 UK time)
Paper. Witek, M. 2022. ‘An Austinian alternative to the Gricean perspective on meaning and communication’. Journal of Pragmatics 201: 60-75.
Guest speakers: Maciej Witek
Friday, February 9th, 2024 (14:00-16:00 UK time)
Paper. Mazzarella, D. 2021. “I didn't mean to suggest anything like that!”: Deniability and context reconstruction. Mind and Language’ 38 (1):218-236.
Guest speakers: Diana Mazzarella
Friday, February 23rd, 2024 (14:00-16:00 UK time)
Paper. Graci, R. & Capone, A. 2023. ‘Perspectives on the semantics/pragmatics debate: insights from aphasia research. Frontiers in Psychology 14:1-20.
Guest speakers: Roberto Graci and Alessandro Capone
Friday, March 8th, 2024 (14:00-16:00 UK time)
Paper. Hansen, M. & Terkourafi, M. 2023. ‘We need to talk about Hearer's Meaning!’. Journal of Pragmatics 208: 99-114.
Guest speakers: Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen and Marina Terkourafi
Michaelmas 2023
Friday, October 13th, 2023 (14:00-15:30 UK time)
Paper. Fishman, A., Asherov, D., Katzir, N., & Ariel, M. 2023. 'Discourse context cannot make 'or' inclusive (only experimental task can)'. Journal of Pragmatics 217: 7-16.
Guest speakers: Alon Fishman and Mira Ariel
Friday, October 27th, 2023 (15:00-16:30 UK time)
Paper. Rumberg, A., Lauer, S. 2023. 'What if, and when? Conditionals, tense, and branching time'. Linguist and Philos 46: 533-565.
Guest speakers: Antje Rumberg and Sven Lauer
Friday, November 10th, 2023 (14:00-16:00 UK time)
Paper. Liebesman, D., Magidor, O.'Copredication and Meaning Transfer'. Journal of Semantics 40: 69-91.
Guest speakers: David Liebesman and Ofra Magidor (tbc)
Friday, November 24th, 2023 (14:30-16:00 UK time)
Paper. Caponetto, L. 2023. 'The Pragmatic Structure of Refusal'. Synthese 201: 1-18.
Guest speaker: Laura Caponetto